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Publications (10 of 22) Show all publications
Andersson, F. W., Jordahl, H. & Kärnä, A. (2024). Ballooning bureaucracy? Stylized facts of growing administration in Swedish higher education. Constitutional Political Economy, 35, 303-326
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Ballooning bureaucracy? Stylized facts of growing administration in Swedish higher education
2024 (English)In: Constitutional Political Economy, ISSN 1043-4062, E-ISSN 1572-9966, Vol. 35, p. 303-326Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

All organizations need to allocate labor to production and administration. In many cases—particularly within the public sector—the optimal allocation is far from obvious. Indeed, vocal concerns have been raised about the administrative burden in several public services, not least in education. We investigate this issue using detailed registry data on all employees at Swedish universities and colleges from 2005 to 2019 and document three stylized facts. First, the group of highly educated administrators has grown rapidly, almost by a factor of seven compared with teachers and researchers. Second, the number of less-educated administrators has stayed flat. Third, the time that teachers and researchers spend on administrative tasks has been roughly constant over time. This indicates that resources have been diverted from teaching and research and raises fears of excessive administrative growth in Swedish higher education.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2024
Keywords
Organizational theory, Bureaucracy, Sclerosis, Higher education, Productivity growth
National Category
Economics
Research subject
Economics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-106713 (URN)10.1007/s10602-023-09408-x (DOI)001012946300001 ()2-s2.0-85162878951 (Scopus ID)
Funder
Örebro UniversityThe Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation, P2018-0162
Available from: 2023-06-30 Created: 2023-06-30 Last updated: 2024-05-27Bibliographically approved
Kärnä, A. & Öhberg, P. (2023). Misrepresentation and migration. Kyklos (Basel), 76(4), 503-525
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Misrepresentation and migration
2023 (English)In: Kyklos (Basel), ISSN 0023-5962, E-ISSN 1467-6435, Vol. 76, no 4, p. 503-525Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

In a representative democracy, politicians should either implement policies that voters want or policies that politicians believe are in voters long-term interest, even if voters currently oppose them. The exact balance between these goals is debatable and politicians' policy engagement can tempt them to dismiss voters' preferences and resist information counter to their own policy position. In this paper, we discuss Sweden's generous migration policy and how it can serve as an example where politicians' policy engagement led them to a overly optimistic view of the implications of welcoming a large influx of refugees. Using detailed, repeated, survey data on members of parliament, we show that Swedish politicians favored a much more generous policy toward accepting refugees than voters for a long period of time. Neither observable factors nor expert knowledge can explain this difference between voters and politicians. A more likely explanations is wishful thinking and policy engagement from politicians that continued until political competition increased.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
John Wiley & Sons, 2023
National Category
Economics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-106813 (URN)10.1111/kykl.12341 (DOI)001004560200001 ()2-s2.0-85161703199 (Scopus ID)
Funder
The Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation, P2018-0162
Available from: 2023-07-27 Created: 2023-07-27 Last updated: 2023-11-16Bibliographically approved
Kärnä, A., Karlsson, J., Engberg, E. & Svensson, P. (2023). Political failure: a missing piece in innovation policy analysis. Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 32(7), 1037-1068
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Political failure: a missing piece in innovation policy analysis
2023 (English)In: Economics of Innovation and New Technology, ISSN 1043-8599, E-ISSN 1476-8364, Vol. 32, no 7, p. 1037-1068Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Within the field of innovation studies, researchers have identified systematic failures that hamper investment in R&D, innovation, and growth. Accordingly, researchers in this field often seek to provide policy recommendations on how to alleviate these failures. However, previous discussions have often been lacking considerations to the risks of political failures, meaning that policies fail to achieve their stated goals in a systematic manner. In response to this gap, this article aims to illustrate the concept of political failure and its relevance for innovation research. This is done by both discussing how political failure can impact innovation policy and by reviewing the prevalence of any discussions of political failure among top-ranked journals on innovation for the period 2010-2019, a total of 7161 articles. The results show that consideration of political failure is scarce, with a small number of papers that have a substantial analysis of political failures. If the awareness of political failures could be increased, this could lead to better policy recommendations with a more nuanced discussion of the risks and limitations of public policy.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2023
Keywords
Innovation policy, political economy, political failure, market failure, public choice
National Category
Economics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-99197 (URN)10.1080/10438599.2022.2070843 (DOI)000795195600001 ()2-s2.0-85130372214 (Scopus ID)
Funder
The Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation, P2018-0162
Available from: 2022-05-30 Created: 2022-05-30 Last updated: 2023-12-04Bibliographically approved
Johansson, C., Kärnä, A. & Meriläinen, J. (2023). Vox Populi, Vox Dei? Tacit collusion in politics. Economics & Politics, 35(3), 752-772
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Vox Populi, Vox Dei? Tacit collusion in politics
2023 (English)In: Economics & Politics, ISSN 0954-1985, E-ISSN 1468-0343, Vol. 35, no 3, p. 752-772Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

We study competition between political parties in repeated elections with probabilistic voting. This model entails multiple equilibria, and we focus on cases where political collusion occurs. When parties hold different opinions on some policy, they may take different policy positions that do not coincide with the median voter's preferred policy platform. In contrast, when parties have a mutual understanding on a particular policy, their policy positions may converge (on some dimension) but not to the median voter's preferred policy. That is to say, parties can tacitly collude with one another, despite political competition. Collusion may collapse, for instance, after the entry of a new political party. This model rationalizes patterns in survey data from Sweden, where politicians on different sides of the political spectrum take different positions on economic policy but similar positions on refugee intake-diverging from the average voter's position, but only until the entry of a populist party.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
John Wiley & Sons, 2023
Keywords
electoral competition, partisan collusion, probabilistic voting, repeated elections, tacit collusion
National Category
Economics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-106061 (URN)10.1111/ecpo.12243 (DOI)000976022800001 ()2-s2.0-85153725009 (Scopus ID)
Funder
The Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius FoundationTore Browaldhs stiftelse, P2018-0162
Available from: 2023-05-26 Created: 2023-05-26 Last updated: 2023-11-16Bibliographically approved
Kärnä, A. & Stephan, A. (2022). Do firms in rural regions lack access to credit? Local variation in small business loans and firm growth. Regional studies, 56(11), 1919-1933
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Do firms in rural regions lack access to credit? Local variation in small business loans and firm growth
2022 (English)In: Regional studies, ISSN 0034-3404, E-ISSN 1360-0591, Vol. 56, no 11, p. 1919-1933Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

We investigate whether bank loans specifically designed to reduce credit constraints for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have different impacts depending on where the firm is located. Using detailed firm-level data from the state-owned Swedish bank Almi, which specifically lends to credit-constrained SMEs, and coarsened exact matching and difference-in-difference regressions, we study the causal effects of small business loans on firm growth. The results show that receiving a loan has a greater impact on firm growth for those SMEs located in major cities than for firms located in remote rural regions. This result has implications for policies that aim to increase growth in rural regions and suggests that increasing access to credit alone is not sufficient to increase employment growth.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2022
Keywords
credit constraints, financial services, small business loans, state-owned bank, regional development, policy evaluation
National Category
Business Administration
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-97344 (URN)10.1080/00343404.2021.2016681 (DOI)000747645100001 ()2-s2.0-85123709549 (Scopus ID)
Funder
The Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation, P2018-0162
Available from: 2022-02-09 Created: 2022-02-09 Last updated: 2022-11-23Bibliographically approved
Bergh, A. & Kärnä, A. (2022). Explaining the rise of populism in European democracies 1980-2018: The role of labor market institutions and inequality. Social Science Quarterly, 103(7), 1719-1731
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Explaining the rise of populism in European democracies 1980-2018: The role of labor market institutions and inequality
2022 (English)In: Social Science Quarterly, ISSN 0038-4941, E-ISSN 1540-6237, Vol. 103, no 7, p. 1719-1731Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Objectives: This article aims to find country-level factors that explain the rise of populist parties in European democracies. While populism is often connected to inequality, we not that right-wing populist parties tend to thrive on fear, including fear of job loss. If flexible labor markets mean that unemployment is dedramatized because finding a new job is easier, labor market flexibility could dampen populism and inequality may be less important.

Methods: We run country-level fixed effects regressions on populist party vote shares in 26 European countries from 1980 to 2018. We use two different classifications of right-wing and left-wing populist parties and control for employment protection strictness as measured by OECD, Gini coefficients of disposable income, and a large set of control variables.

Results: Unemployment is positively associated with left-wing populism. Strict employment protection is positively associated with right-wing populism. Gini inequality of income is unrelated to (both types of) populism.

Conclusion: Strong employment protection and low-income inequality may not be the most efficient way to combat right-wing populism. A strategy that promotes flexible labor markets, and job upgrading may be an alternative. More research on the link between labor market institutions and (in particular, right-wing) populism is needed.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Blackwell Publishing, 2022
Keywords
Employment protection, inequality, populism, social spending, the welfare state
National Category
Economics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-102313 (URN)10.1111/ssqu.13227 (DOI)000881861700001 ()2-s2.0-85141947019 (Scopus ID)
Funder
The Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation, P2018-0162 P2019-0180Tore Browaldhs stiftelse
Note

Funding agency:

Länsförsäkringars Forskningsfond

Available from: 2022-11-22 Created: 2022-11-22 Last updated: 2023-02-03Bibliographically approved
Henrekson, M., Kärnä, A. & Sanandaji, T. (2022). Schumpeterian entrepreneurship: coveted by policymakers but impervious to top-down policymaking. Journal of evolutionary economics, 32(3), 867-890
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Schumpeterian entrepreneurship: coveted by policymakers but impervious to top-down policymaking
2022 (English)In: Journal of evolutionary economics, ISSN 0936-9937, E-ISSN 1432-1386, Vol. 32, no 3, p. 867-890Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Differentiating various types of entrepreneurs provides clues to the puzzle of why vertical or top-down policies often fail to create Schumpeterian entrepreneurship and the ecosystems where it thrives. Schumpeterian entrepreneurship is intrinsically contrarian, whereas public policy has a bias toward incremental innovation and replication of past success. If central planners knew what the next radical innovation would be, there would be no need for Schumpeterian entrepreneurs. Schumpeterian entrepreneurs create not only companies but also institutions in the entrepreneurial support system. These ever-evolving structures are too complex to design, and central planning instead reduces the space for organic institutional innovation.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2022
Keywords
Entrepreneurship policy, High-impact entrepreneurship, Innovation, Institutions, Schumpeterian entrepreneurship
National Category
Economics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-98027 (URN)10.1007/s00191-022-00761-y (DOI)000761875300001 ()2-s2.0-85125147792 (Scopus ID)
Funder
The Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation, P2018-0162Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation, 2020.0049
Available from: 2022-03-15 Created: 2022-03-15 Last updated: 2022-11-23Bibliographically approved
Bergh, A. & Kärnä, A. (2021). Globalization and populism in Europe. Public Choice, 189(1-2), 51-70
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Globalization and populism in Europe
2021 (English)In: Public Choice, ISSN 0048-5829, E-ISSN 1573-7101, Vol. 189, no 1-2, p. 51-70Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Recent micro-level studies have suggested that globalization-in particular, economic globalization and trade with China-breeds political polarization and populism. This study examines whether or not those results generalize by examining the country-level association between vote shares for European populist parties and economic globalization. Using data on vote shares for 267 right-wing and left-wing populist parties in 33 European countries during 1980-2017, and globalization data from the KOF institute, we find no evidence of a positive association between (economic or other types of) globalization and populism. EU membership is associated with a 4-6-percentage-point larger vote share for right-wing populist parties.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2021
Keywords
Globalization, Populism, Trade
National Category
Economics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-87939 (URN)10.1007/s11127-020-00857-8 (DOI)000590914000001 ()2-s2.0-85096346061 (Scopus ID)
Note

Funding Agency:

Örebro University

Correction:

DOI: 10.1007/s11127-022-00961-x

WOS: 000770958700001

Available from: 2020-12-09 Created: 2020-12-09 Last updated: 2022-06-23Bibliographically approved
Kärnä, A. (2021). Take it to the (public) bank: The efficiency of public bank loans to private firms. The German Economic Review, 22(1), 27-62
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Take it to the (public) bank: The efficiency of public bank loans to private firms
2021 (English)In: The German Economic Review, ISSN 1465-6485, E-ISSN 1468-0475, Vol. 22, no 1, p. 27-62Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Incomplete capital markets and credit constraints for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are often considered obstacles to economic growth, thus motivating government interventions in capital markets. While such policies are common, it is less clear to what extent these interventions result in firm growth or to which firms interventions should be targeted. Using a unique dataset with information about state bank loans targeting credit-constrained SMEs in Sweden with and without complementary private bankloans, this paper contributes to the literature by studying how these loans affect the targeted firms for several outcome variables. The results suggest that the loans create a one-off increase in investments, with long-term, positive effects for sales and labor productivity but only for firms with 10 or fewer employees. Increased access to capital by firms can therefore produce increases in economic output but only in a specific type of firm. This insight is of key importance in designing policy if the aim is to increase economic growth.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Blackwell Publishing, 2021
Keywords
Credit constraints, Public policy, State-owned banks, SMEs, CEM, Matching, Credit rationing
National Category
Economics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-89099 (URN)10.1515/ger-2019-0023 (DOI)000627908600002 ()2-s2.0-85089660537 (Scopus ID)
Funder
The Jan Wallander and Tom Hedelius Foundation, P2018-0162
Available from: 2021-01-29 Created: 2021-01-29 Last updated: 2021-04-06Bibliographically approved
Österholm, P., Hultkrantz, L. & Kärnä, A. (2020). De stora kostnaderna för äldre ligger framför oss. Svenska dagbladet (January 23)
Open this publication in new window or tab >>De stora kostnaderna för äldre ligger framför oss
2020 (Swedish)In: Svenska dagbladet, ISSN 1101-2412, no January 23Article in journal, News item (Other (popular science, discussion, etc.)) Published
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Stockholm: Hb Svenska dagbladets AB & Co, 2020
National Category
Economics
Research subject
Economics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-88725 (URN)
Available from: 2021-01-20 Created: 2021-01-20 Last updated: 2022-06-22Bibliographically approved
Organisations
Identifiers
ORCID iD: ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0002-9173-8347

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